Cornyn embargoed his comments until after the speech, but Smith doesn't believe in that kind of thing unless he has agreed to it: "[A]s I've written before, embargoes are agreements, not unilateral demands in press releases," he says.

Embargoed statements are common in the political world and elsewhere, and copies of the State of the Union were available prior to it being given.

But usually that means politicians go after the content of the speech, not the performance of it.

We imagine Cornyn would have been mightily embarrassed if a drunken Obama had stuttered, stumbled and slurred his way through the thing.

Well no, Cornyn would probably have been pleased as punch, actually. But as he foresaw, such a thing didn't happen.